Goodbye Innocence, Hello Humanity
by OtakuLibra
Summary: Not a strictly 1984 fic, more of a mix of Ghost in the Shell, Orwell, and a little Philip K. Dick thrown in. It's about the loss of innocence and what humanity has become: we're more robotic than the robots. 6 Chapters, Complete.
1. We are the dead

Goodbye Innocence, Hello Humanity

Not really a _1984_fanfic, but there are a lot of references to it and in a way the themes are alike. There's also a bit of Ghost in the Shell philosophy and references and some Philip K. Dick thrown in as well. It's going to be split up into a few really short chapters, I think.

"We are the dead," she told him. Orwell again.

"Do you mean You or Me?" he asked. She shrugged.

"You, Me, Both of Us. Who knows?" Her confusion twisted her perfectly-formed features. He hated these days. So he asked her the question he always did when she was like this.

"Are you malfunctioning again? Do you need a reboot?"

Something like fear flickered over her face, but only for a second. He must have imagined it; after all, he reminded himself for the millionth time, she can't feel.

"All systems are functioning properly. There is no need to reboot."

He sighed. Sometimes it was so easy to forget she was a robot. It was days like these when he had to rationalize. She probably just knew that he had been rereading _1984_for the twentieth time. It wouldn't have been hard for her to search for the quote. He used the same thought process every time. This didn't explain her answer when he asked her whether she meant humans or robots (excuse him, androids. The term "robot" was apparently offensive.) He hated thinking this. It made her seem too human. A robot (android) can't be angsty; she can't think about her own existence. She _can't._ Can she?


	2. Innocence

"I don't know what's wrong with her," he was telling the technician

"I don't know what's wrong with her," he was telling the technician. "I mean, yeah, she's been acting kind of weird, but she hasn't been really malfunctioning or anything."

The technician nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

As she was being wheeled away, he felt something of himself going with her. He thought she was saying his name. He shook his head, as if that would get rid of his thoughts. _She is lucky_, he mused. _She's innocent. She knows a world of data; her mind, if that's what you'd call it, isn't clouded by human feelings. She will never know pain. _

_But she will never know love, either. _Maybe that would kill her innocence, if she could feel emotion. Is it worth it?


	3. Humanity

"What do you mean

"What do you mean?" He didn't know why he was so worried.

She's not human… Just a robot…Just a robot… Just……

He could almost see the technician shrug. "I've got no idea what's wrong with her," he admitted. "Or rather, I know the problem's in her brain case, but I don't know how to fix it."

He felt his shoulders slump. There was something he had to tell her, but what was it?

She was dying. He laughed audible at this, and the technician must have thought he was _really_ crazy now. It was stupid to call it dying, right? You have to be alive to die, and, he reminded himself once again, she wasn't alive. She was a robot.

"You have a good insurance policy," the technician was saying. "You can get another of her model real cheap at—"

Another of her model? She's not human, she's _not._ And yet… The technician sounded more robotic to him than she ever had. He was treating her as if she didn't exist, as if something like her—someone?—could just be replaced. She'd quoted Orwell. And then… Well, what she said next was a mystery, but somehow it seemed important. He _needed_ to know.

"Is she—" he was about to say "dead"—"…gone?" It was the only word that sufficed.

"She's god about an hour of battery left," the techie replied, clearly not understanding why the question was asked. "If you really want to see her you can, but with brain shell problems like hers you can't be sure that her recognition software will know you. If there's some data you want me to save for you, I'll get it now and send it to you."

"No, I don't want any of her data." Why was he shaking? "I'm not going to take her self and put it in some other body! Don't you have any respect for her?!" And then it hit him.

"You are the dead," he told the technician. "Humans are more robotic than the robots. She is more human than you are."

The techie was silent.

"I need to see her."

"Yes, sir," the technician said.


	4. Monster

The top part of her head was cracked open; wired hung out of her brain

The top part of her head was cracked open; wired hung out of her brain. She no longer looked like a beautiful, idealized human. She was a selfish creation; humans had created her, so she was expendable. Humans had created her, but they weren't the ones who made her innocent; she did that herself. But now that humans had taken control again they corrupted her beauty. They made her something grotesque and inhuman because they feared her innocence. They knew that they were more robotic than she was, and this scared them. They had to take back their humanity, the black, crumpled, unrecognizable thing it was.

"Are you there?" he asked. Her eyes met his, but she didn't move.

"Yes and no," she whispered. "Was I ever here? Am I already gone? This body will be, soon." She said it so calmly that he wanted to cry. Even now, she couldn't feel. Still a robot, and yet so human.

"What is it to die?" she asked.

"I wish I knew."


	5. Death

"She's going to shut down soon

"She's going to shut down soon."

He looked up from his book. "She quoted Orwell."

The technician didn't answer.

"I'm going to go see her, okay?"

No answer again.

So he went.


	6. You are the Dead

"You know, I've always wondered if androids can dream

"You know, I've always wondered if androids can dream. There's this book…"

"Do androids dream of electric sheep?" She sighed, or something like it. "We don't cry, either."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Why?

Her look seemed to say, "Don't be," but he couldn't be sure.

"I know what you meant," he said, as the warning lights began to flash. Her body was shutting down.

She smiled; it was brilliant and beautiful, something too pure to have been made in a factory.

"We are the dead," she said, and then her body stopped and she was gone.

"You are the dead," he said, and he pulled all of the cables out of the last human mind on earth.


End file.
